Magic Incarnate the Box Set 1-3, page 97
“Good. Because we aren’t selling anything.” Brianna smiles widely.
The shaman goes to close the door.
I shove my foot forward to stop him. “We’re here because we need your help.”
“Not interested in that either. Now move or else—“
“Or else you’ll use a magic potion on us?” I cross my arms and try to nudge the door open more with my foot. He holds it in place.
He glances from me to Bri and back again. “Who are you? Who sent you?”
“We’re here on behalf of a friend.” I’m not sure I like this guy, but if he can help us find Crystal or help her come back, I’ll deal with him.
“Who is? Come on, kids. Not a mind reader.”
“Crystal Miller.”
“Crystal Wynter,” Brianna corrects.
I wince. That’s right. Crystal told me on the phone one night that her real last name was Wynter. Her mom, Mrs. Miller, is really her aunt. Her real dad died shortly before she was born, and her birth mom shortly afterward.
“What about her?” the shaman snaps. His dark eyes flash.
Whoa. He looks pissed. Why? Why would Crystal’s name set him off?
“She’s… We need your help finding her.” For some reason, I didn’t want to explain every single detail. Finding her, even if she’s still dead, is a start, and if she’s already alive again, all the better.
“How do you know she wants to be found?”
“She does.” Bri taps her foot, hands on her hips. “Can we come in?”
The shaman appraises us. “You aren’t… Wait here.” He pushes the door so hard that my foot slips, and he closes the door.
Bri and I only have time to glance at each other when he reopens the door.
He shoves a piece of paper into my hand. “Here. Get me these herbs. They’re called blood’s life.”
They look like bleeding heart plants, only the heart part is black, and the petal hanging down is a blood-red color.
“Why do you need it?” Brianna asks.
“To help find your friend.” His smile makes me shiver.
“How much do you need? Where can we find it?”
“There’s said to be a cave inside the waterfalls beyond Mountain Fairview. Deep within the cave lies a pond filled with black waters. Only in places on earth with those black waters does the blood’s life thrive.”
“Mountain Fairview? Seriously?” Even if we luck out and hitchhike our way over, it’ll still take us forever to hike the mountain. And then find the cave. And the pond. And make our way back.
“Seriously. Without it, I can’t locate your friend.”
Brianna grimaces. I scowl. The witches hadn’t mentioned anything about needing an herb.
“You’re skeptical. What can I say that will alleviate your fears?”
“You’ll be able to locate her no matter where she is?” Bri asks.
“Of course.”
“The—“
“If you’re gonna mention witches,” he threatens. “They think they are so powerful. They couldn’t help you, could they? That’s why you came to me.”
“We don’t even know his name,” Brianna whispers in my ear.
You don’t need to know his name.
The voice. Crystal.
“We’ll do it.”
Brianna says nothing.
The shaman nods. “Good. Very good.”
“Got a car we can borrow?” Bri asks.
“It’s in the shop.” The shaman’s nostrils flare. “Even magic can help with technology,” he mutters. “You might want to get going. A storm’s coming.” He closes the door.
Bri grimaces. “I don’t know about this, Vince.”
“We have to do this. It’s the only way.”
“Because of your dream.”
“I’m also hearing her voice.”
“Crystal’s? Your connection is still going?”
“Yeah. I hope that means she’s alive, but… I don’t know. I think she isn’t yet. I think she needs our help, Bri. We have to find her or her body. Whichever. She led us to the shaman. We have to help him for him to help us.”
“If you’re sure.”
We walk away from the Victorian. It’s not until we reach an intersection that I realize something. “Your car. Where is it? We can use it to drive to the mountain and save so much time—“
“I got a ticket. My mom took my keys away. I pretended to take the bus to go away to the culinary school.”
“Can’t you sneak into your house and swipe the keys back?”
“Nope. Mom’ll report the car stolen.”
“Oh. Right. Hitchhiking it is.”
No. No hitchhiking. Too dangerous.
I grimace. It’ll take forever to reach the mountain without a car to help with some of the miles.
Bri sticks out her thumb, but I grab her hand.
“Too risky. We need to keep a low profile.”
She narrows her eyes. “Crystal tell you not to?”
I nod sheepishly.
“All right then.” She blows air out of her mouth, and her bangs flutter. “Crystal never used to be so bossy.”
“I know, right?”
We make it to the edge of town when the storm hits. We stay beneath a large oak. It's a miserable night, and the next night is just as wet and swampy. It's almost as if the storm is following us, slowing us down.
It takes days and days and weeks and weeks, and exactly three months after Crystal died, we finally reach the mountain. It takes another month for us to reach the waterfalls.
Step one done. Step two to come.
Chapter 7
The sight of the blue-green waters of the waterfall is a welcome sight. We're running very low on supplies. Here and there, we found berries and other fruit to scavenge, but they don’t last long. The sound of the rushing water makes me so thirsty, and I dart forward.
“Wait for me!” Brianna giggles.
It’s been a trying time, getting here. I've been having a lot of dreams, my rest always leaving me more exhausted than when I first lie down. Most of my dreams are about Crystal, and the others I don’t remember.
In the early mornings and late at night, I hear her. She pushes me to keep on going. She’s convinced I’ll find the herbs. She has faith in me. Crystal’s all about faith, so I push through. I conserve rations and go thirsty. The sooner we recover the herb, the sooner we can get back to the shaman, and the sooner we can learn where Crystal is. Dead or alive, we’ll find her.
Brianna’s already wading through the water toward the falls. She left her supplies near a tree, and I do the same with mine and plunge into the water after her. I’ve always been a decent swimmer, so it doesn’t surprise me when I bypass her.
Just like the shaman said, there’s a cave. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to access, and we have to swim to reach it and then climb up the slippery weatherworn cliff. I go first, and once I reach the top, I lie down on my stomach. As soon as Bri is high enough, I grab her hand and help pull her inside.
It’s hot, strangely hot. We went on a field trip through caves back in grade school, and it had been cold and damp, but this feels way too hot. The cave glows from within the rocks on the wall.
“Eerie,” Brianna murmurs.
She got that right.
“Come on.” Water drips off me, and my sneakers slide on the slick floor, but I head farther into the cave.
The glow from the cave walls started out yellow, but now it’s more of a bluish color. So far, I haven’t seen any kind of life in here, not even a blade of grass.
“Where do you suppose the plant is?” Bri asks.
“Knowing our luck, all the way in the back. And the walls won’t glow there.”
“We’re getting there.” Bri bounces on her feet, but her smile is gone. Roughing it hasn’t been easy on either of us, but she’s more worn out than I am. I know I miss my parents and our friends, but she also left behind her sister Julie, and that has to be rough. Yeah, there’s a sizable age difference between them—about a decade if I remember right—but the two of them are pretty close.
“Crystal,” I murmur. We’ll see you soon.
Deeper and deeper, we explore the cave. Now the glow is green than purple, and then the glow just stops.
A bitingly cold wind blows through, and I shiver. Suddenly, I'm wishing we could turn around and leave immediately.
Of course, I don’t. I don’t even mention my apprehension to Brianna. Her jaw is set, and I’m just as fierce as she is.
There. In the back, against the wall, moonlight shining from an opening far above our hands, is the blood’s life plant.
I dart forward, suddenly energized, but before I can reach the plant, a man steps forward, out of the shadows.
“Who are you?” Brianna asks.
“I will ask the questions.” His voice pierces my ears, more humming than talking. “Who are you, and what is your business here?”
I stomp on Brianna's foot. "Stranger danger. We were told not to answer questions from anyone who won't identify themselves. Sorry, dude."
Although I’ve never seen this guy before, he seems familiar. Maybe he starred in one of the dreams I can’t remember. It’s freaking me out, all of the dreams. I want them to just be dreams, but they’re so strong and vivid. Normally I hardly ever dream, or else I never remember them, so maybe I just don’t realize that this is what dreaming all the time is all about. There’s something unreal about these dreams, something I can’t quite explain.
The man is taller than me, has a good twenty pounds on me, all muscle. His green eyes pierce me, and I shiver. It feels like he’s inside my mind, but that can’t be.
“I suggest you leave now,” he says, his voice echoing in the cave.
Is it me, or did the glow return to the walls for a second?
“I’ve never been one to listen to authority figures. Sorry.” I shrug and inch closer to the plant.
A fire appears inches from my foot.
Oh! The man's a witch! Well, isn't that perfect?
Chapter 8
“Go now,” the witch says.
I’m terrified, but I’m not about to back down. “You go,” I demand. Even though it won’t help me, even though he has power and strength and magic on his side, I put up my dukes.
His high-pitched laugh grates on my nerves. “I won’t tell you again.”
“Fine then.” I start to move forward, around the fire. “Just gonna pluck one of these lovely flowers—”
A ball of fire singes toward me, and I duck to avoid it. The crackle and the warmth of it make me shudder.
“What…”
Oh. A witch. The plant. He’s the guardian of it. This plant must have some potent powers. Which makes sense, considering the shaman needs it to help with Crystal.
“We were just exploring,” Brianna says. Her voice is low-pitched, something I’ve noticed she does when she’s nervous.
Sure, why not?
“The waterfall is a great spot for a swim.” I glance down at my clothes. Slightly damp yet. My hair, despite growing for so long, has mostly dried already. It’s obvious though from our clothes that we hadn’t planned on a swim.
“So beautiful.” Brianna’s laugh is so fake. “I can’t believe Vince here knocked me into the water, but I got him back.”
I fake a laugh myself. “Yeah. And we happened to spy this cave through the waterfall—”
“And I just had to see what was inside.”
“So here we are,” I finish lamely.
“The plant is unlike any I’ve ever seen before,” Brianna says. “Do you know anything about it?”
Maybe it’s not smart to talk about it. Scratch that. Judging by the growing scowl on his face, it definitely isn’t.
“We’ll just go.” I nudge Bri.
She glances at me, surprised.
“Oh, yeah. Nice ta meet ya.” She waves to the guy.
Discretely, I push her forward, and she awkwardly catches herself and shoots out her hand.
While she's forcing the witch to shake her hand—man, is that brave of her—I try to hide snatching a piece of the herb, but before I can touch it, the man holds out his hand toward me, and a blast of wind knocks me clear across the cave. My back slams into the wall, and I slump down to the ground.
Bri screams. “What is your deal?” She holds up her fists, ready to pummel him.
The witch turns toward her. I have to make a choice between seizing some bleeding hearts and distracting him from harming Brianna.
And I make my decision.
I grab a rock by my foot and launch it at his head. He jerks, his hand moving slightly, just enough that the fireball isn't directly pointed at Bri.
Good.
But now, his focus is back on me.
Not so good.
He chuckles loudly. “You think you can stop me? I’ll burn it to ashes before I’ll allow the likes of two humans to get their hands on it.” The witch holds up his hands, and a massive ball of fire forms.
No! I can’t allow him to destroy the plant, my one chance to get Crystal back.
I dart in front of the herb to block it.
The witch doesn't care. He winds back his arm to throw the fireball at me.
Brianna races forward and knocks her shoulder into the witch. The fireball drops to the ground as he staggers a few steps.
My fingers touch the bleeding heart part of the herb. I can't pull it off the stem, though. It's as if it's soldered on.
The man roars. “You’ll never get it as long as I’m alive!” And he cackles just like an evil witch.
Flashes of blue lightning crackle on his hand, and I shoot Brianna a look of desperation. I have no idea how to face him. We’re at a severe disadvantage here. Maybe it would be better to leave, to regroup, to maybe wait until he’s asleep and come back later…
But we've taken so long to get here. Months have passed, and we still have to return home. Crystal needs up.
What would she do if she were here?
Well, she’d have magic, so she’d fight him back, fire with fire. But even if she were human and not magic itself, she’d still find a way.
But I’m so desperate that I can’t think of anything. The witch is growing his lightning. His gaze is on Brianna, who is grabbing a rock, but I just know he’s gonna shoot the blast at me.
And I’m right.
I throw myself at the ground, and the lightning sears through the air above me. My hair has to be standing on end—I can feel the charge—and I slowly climb to my feet. The plant is all right behind me, but for how long? It’s gotta have amazing magical properties for it to have a guardian who would rather destroy it than have it used.
Brianna throws a rock at him, one after another, and I do the same. He uses wind to block most, but a few do make contact. Unfortunately, we're running out of big rocks, and he blasts Brianna against the cave wall. She slumps to the ground, motionless.
No!
Chapter 9
My hands close into fists, and I stalk toward him. My anger, my rage… it’s worse than after Tommy died.
The man laughs. “You think you can stop me? You’re nothing.”
“No. You’re nothing.”
And I decked him. Just whaled on him. Again and again. Until he falls down himself.
I quickly check over Brianna. She’s unconscious, and some blood trickles from her temple, but she seems all right other than that. Shaking doesn’t stir her.
Sneaking a glance at the unconscious witch, I rush over to the herb. Nothing I do will remove a bleeding heart from the stem, and I can’t dig into the cave floor to grab it from the root either.
“You’ll never get it as long as I’m alive!” the witch said.
Does that mean that the herb is under some kind of a protection spell? That a bleeding heart really can’t be plucked while he’s alive?
I walk back over to him. The witch. He has to die. It’s the only way for Crystal to come back. But… can I do it? Can I kill him? Kill someone so that she can live? Kill someone when it's not even in self-defense?
It’s not like I can wait around for him to wake up. He’ll kill me.
He. I don’t even know his name. The man—the witch—would have no hesitation to kill us… if he saw us as a threat. He doesn’t. He’s been toying with us. He can use the wind against us, lightning, fire… If he really wanted to kill us, he would have already.
I grab him by the wrists and drag him out of the cave before dashing back inside. Brianna’s still unconscious. The bleeding heart refuses to be broken off.
The witch must die.
It’s horrible and terrible, being pitted like this. To have to choose who lives and who dies. Without the herb, Crystal can’t come back, but that means I’ll have to kill the witch…
We’re out by the waterfall. The churning water is restless and chaotic, mirroring my emotions. A pit forms in my stomach, and I have to close my eyes as I shove the guy off the cliff. He hardly makes a splash, and he doesn’t resurface, not after a minute, not after five, ten, twenty.
It’s bright and sunny when I sent him to his watery grave, and it’s not until twilight comes that I make my way back into the cave. I killed him. He's dead. He's dead and drowned because of me.
I'm a murderer.
Yeah, he toyed with us, but if he saw us as a threat, he would’ve killed us. And we have to have the herb. If he realized how serious we were, we would've been the ones to die. Self-defense in a roundabout way.
My stomach churns so much that I bend over and vomit. Our rations are basically nonexistent, so it’s basically dry heaving, and the back of my throat burns like it’s on fire.
By the time I make it back to the spot, Brianna is stirring. With a groan, she touches the side of her head and winces. “What happened? Where is the jerk?”
"We don't have to worry about him." I march over to the bleeding hearts. The black heart part feels almost too hot to touch. Strange. I don't recall feeling that the first few times I touched the herb. The blood-red of the petal hanging down glistens and pulsates, like it's alive. Well, all plants are alive, but you know what I mean.
